By Kgomotso Mokoena
Johannesburg – If you woke up Orlando Pirates’ coach Josef Zinnbauer in the middle of the night and asked him to name his starting 11, he may still want to sleep on it a little more before he can give you an answer.
Somehow, the German does not seem to know yet which of his troops he can take into combat.
He is like a kid in a candy store. He wants to eat all the candy in one sitting – the luxury of having a massive and top-of-therange squad has actually caught him in a slush puppie kind of a twister.
Last season, he was given a chance to know the strengths and weaknesses of some of his players – it was only fair, he arrived and worked with a squad he didn’t know, but he fared okay. At Pirates, a coach does not draw up a list of players he wants and take it to management.
I think the argument is that it’s much easier to fire one coach than to get rid of 10 players the coach may have brought … not the most subtle method, but pretty effective and callously spot on, come to think of it.
That said, this season Bucs bolstered the squad and he was expected to finally settle on his final 11 that would challenge Mamelodi Sundowns for trophies.
He introduced his new signings quickly, with Bafana Bafana captain Thulani “Tyson” Hlatshwayo, Wayde Jooste, Deon Hotto and Terrence Dzvukamanja getting regular starts.
But in the same period he got rid of fan favourites Luvuyo Memela and Justin Shonga.
The season started fairly well, MTN especially. Pirates looked hungry and were demanding new respect.
But his chopping and changing makes those chop-shop skelms in Tembisa look like nincompoops.
The team can never get much rhythm because it wins convincingly and the next fixture a different 11 shows up. Zinnbauer still has a lot of unused firepower in Makusu Mundele, Nkanyiso Zungu, Collins Makgaka and Austin Muwowo who are all collecting free cheques.
Gone are the days when the Bucs would rather beat Kaizer Chiefs and lose to other small teams. Zinnbauer seems to have Chiefs’ number but Amabhakaniya are gatvol – beating Amakhosi these days is easy … they want to compete for more honours and to reclaim their status as a force to be reckoned with. The task seems to be a little daunting for Zinnbauer.
I do not see him lasting.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
